So far, rumors of the first two appointments by Obama leave me worried. Rahm? No, please -- after campaigning on a slogan of "change", buying into one of the most deeply imbedded beltway insiders is not encouraging. Maybe there's some virtue in working with the Democratic establishment, so I can forgive one concession to the status quo, but let's see some innovative thinking, too.

More worrisome is the idea that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could get a prominent appointment. Orac has torn that one apart, and I agree: we do not need another irrational purveyor of woo and fluffy substanceless hysteria contributing to this country's administration.

>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm(excerpt follows):> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.> > **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.> > Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd> still disappear if I was you.

I have been an Obama supporter since before his party nomination. As a teenager far too young to vote, I was a Democratic Precinct Captain during John F. Kennedy's 1960 election campaign.

However, I strongly believe that John F. Kennedy Junior's position on a supposed vaccine/autism link is crackpot, anti-science nonsense. He's part of the witless and dangerous anti-vac movement, which is just as divorced from reality as are the "9/11 truthers."

Please, PLEASE do not consider JFK Jr. for any position in the Obama administration that relates to health or science!

“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMoonerHere's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.

This email is to express my concern about the announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being considered for the leading of the Environmental Protection Agency.

This is particularly of concern to me because of Mr. Kennedy's outspoken support for the un-scientific idea linking vaccination to the increase in Autism.

Not only is this idea un-supported by any objective data but; more troubling; it leads some parents to reject vaccination for their children. This increase in the number of non-vaccined children is extremely worrisome, not only does the individual children lack protection against infections but they are more likely to transmit the infection to other, hence disrupting herd immunity and increasing the risk of epidemics.

Ultimately; the stance against against vaccine that Mr. Kennedy is condoning is not only un-supported but is of real concern for the public health of this nation.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Carl Sagan - 1996

I have no problem with Rahm Emanual as White House CoS. He is a smart guy, knows the territory, and the position is not a cabinet post. You really do need an insider for this job, it will make things run smoothly for you. He is also not one of the crazy-liberal hardliners. He is in charge of something in the house for getting democrats elected (forget the title or whatever), and he has brought in moderate dems (some anti-abortion and some pro-gun people) for some predominantly conservative districts.

He has a rep for being able to get things done in the House, getting bi-partisan support for some legislation, and is not a total asshat like Delay. He can, apparently, be a bit of a dick though. No nonsense guy.

I think he is a smart pick for the job.

Robert Kennedy though..... its only rumors we have at this stage on who is really under consideration for positions. Hope Kennedy isn't getting serious consideration.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth

I know that, in some situations, rumours like this are engineered as a way to taste the water.Kennedy, certainly, would be a potentially controversial enough character (substance abuse; criminal record; publicly called the 2004 elections a fraud and supporting the vaccine-autism conspiracy theory...) to justify such prudence.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Carl Sagan - 1996

I have no problem with Rahm Emanual as White House CoS. He is a smart guy, knows the territory, and the position is not a cabinet post. You really do need an insider for this job, it will make things run smoothly for you. He is also not one of the crazy-liberal hardliners. He is in charge of something in the house for getting democrats elected (forget the title or whatever), and he has brought in moderate dems (some anti-abortion and some pro-gun people) for some predominantly conservative districts.

He has a rep for being able to get things done in the House, getting bi-partisan support for some legislation, and is not a total asshat like Delay. He can, apparently, be a bit of a dick though. No nonsense guy.

I think he is a smart pick for the job.

Robert Kennedy though..... its only rumors we have at this stage on who is really under consideration for positions. Hope Kennedy isn't getting serious consideration.

This is my take on it as well. Thanks, Dude, of saving me the time to type it out.

"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman

I also have no problem with Obama's pick for chief of staff. Change doesn't mean that you should not have close advisers who know how the system works, and how to work it. It's rather foolish to think otherwise.

Jimmy Carter made that mistake and was unable to get congressional members of his own party to stand behind him. That was his undoing.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Have you seen any other fact or opinion pieces on Kennedy as a woo-woo wacko other than DZ Myers reference to Orac's anti-Kennedy piece? Two things trouble me:

1. DZ gives no other authority than the piece by Orac for his strong statement on Kennedy. It certainly may be true and Kennedy may be a nut case alright, but I would like more than one blogger's opinion!

2. Orac is anonymous:

Finally, Orac's "real" identity is more or less an open secret among some parts of the blogosphere, but he nonetheless keeps using the Orac pseudonym because (1) he doesn't want his blog to be the first thing that comes up when patients Google his "real" name; (2) he has a long history on the Internet under this particular pseudonym; and (3) he likes the persona that the "Orac" pseudonym allows him to take on. Indeed, even if Orac ever decides to ditch the whole anonymity thing, he will likely retain the pseudonym and simply place a link to his faculty page somewhere on the blog.

I would like to be able to google "Orac" meaningfully and get some reading on the man, before totally accepting his strong opinions.

With reference to Rahm Immanuel, I feel DZ is completely off base here. Immanual is widely accepted in both parties as tough as nails, but a man that knows how to get things done. More than any other challenge facing him, Obama needs to get a whole lot of things done (legislation) in a very short time. Immanuel, a left of center liberal, will get things done!

Have you seen any other fact or opinion pieces on Kennedy as a woo-woo wacko other than DZ Myers reference to Orac's anti-Kennedy piece? Two things trouble me:

1. DZ gives no other authority than the piece by Orac for his strong statement on Kennedy. It certainly may be true and Kennedy may be a nut case alright, but I would like more than one blogger's opinion!

2. Orac is anonymous:

Finally, Orac's "real" identity is more or less an open secret among some parts of the blogosphere, but he nonetheless keeps using the Orac pseudonym because (1) he doesn't want his blog to be the first thing that comes up when patients Google his "real" name; (2) he has a long history on the Internet under this particular pseudonym; and (3) he likes the persona that the "Orac" pseudonym allows him to take on. Indeed, even if Orac ever decides to ditch the whole anonymity thing, he will likely retain the pseudonym and simply place a link to his faculty page somewhere on the blog.

I would like to be able to google "Orac" meaningfully and get some reading on the man, before totally accepting his strong opinions.

With reference to Rahm Immanuel, I feel DZ is completely off base here. Immanual is widely accepted in both parties as tough as nails, but a man that knows how to get things done. More than any other challenge facing him, Obama needs to get a whole lot of things done (legislation) in a very short time. Immanuel, a left of center liberal, will get things done!

I hope you're right...and no, I haven't seen anything else about RFK until the stuff that got posted here. I may have (hopefully) jumped the gun, but I don't think that there should be any chance that anyone who has less than a stellar reputation should be in the posts that Obama fills. Your country has had too much of that under Bush.

At least some of Obama's other actions seem to be positive.

>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm(excerpt follows):> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.> > **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.> > Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd> still disappear if I was you.

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